





ifications and Material 


for the 





Published by the Secretariat, = ~ 
O. Box 226, Boston, Mass., U.S.A. 


- October 28, 1926 


| BOX & SY f 7 HG20 


Library of the Theological Seminary 


PRINCETON ® NEW JERSEY 


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Presented by 


Dr. Earl A. Pope 
Manson Professor of Bible 
Lafayette College 
The Earl A. Pope Collection 











Data concerning the 


Lausanne Programme 


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Dates of the Conference. At its meeting at 
Berne, August 23-25, 1926, the Continuation 
Committee decided that the Conference 
should begin with a service on the evening of 
Tuesday, August 2, 1927, but that the first 
meeting should not take place until Wednes- 
day morning. It was agreed that the Con- 
ference should end on August 21. 


Continuation Committee Sessions. The 
Business Committee, New York, October 15, 
1926, voted that the Continuation Committee 
be called to meet at Lausanne on Saturday, 
July 30, 1927, and Monday and Tuesday 
August 1 and 2, in order to perfect the ar- 
rangements for the Conference. 


London, December 1926. The central Com- 
mittee charged to select speakers to open the 
subjects for discussion at Lausanne will meet 
in London, presumably between December 14 
and 18, 1926. It is hoped that Canon Bate, 
Hon. Secretary of the Subjects Committee, 
will be present together with the members of 
the Committee, namely Archbishop Séder- 
blom, Archbishop Germanos, Dr. Garvie, and 
(in the stead of Bishop Brent) the Corre- 
sponding Secretary. 


Procedure at Lausanne. The Continuation 
Committee at Berne in August 1926 referred 
the following provisions to the Business Com- 
mittee for their guidance: 


1. That the time available for conference 
at Lausanne be divided into four periods, 
the first two of four days each and the last 
two of three days each; and that two days © 
should be left clear at the end for the com- 
pletion of the Conference’s work and the 
transaction of necessary business. 


2. That during the first and third of these 
periods the main subjects of the Agenda 
should be brought before the whole Con- 
ference in the following order: 


Ae 
jf 


TLE. 
IV. 


The Call to Unity. 

The Church’s Message to the World 
— the Gospel. 

The Nature of the Church. 

The Church’s Common Confession 
of Faith. 


(Third Period) 


. The Church’s Ministry. 
. The Sacraments. 
MLS 


The Unity of Christendom and 
the Relation thereto of existing 
Churches. 


3. That at the morning sessions on these 
days there should be (a) two speeches by 
invited speakers, whose addresses should 
have been previously printed and circulated 
in the three languages of the Conference; 
and (b) other speeches by invited speakers 
who should have prepared themselves to 
follow what had already been said; care 
being taken, in inviting the speakers, that 
different types of Churches should be as 
adequately represented as possible; and 
that at the afternoon sessions of these days 
there should be free discussion of the topics 
presented in the morning. 


4. That for the second and fourth periods 
the Conference should be divided into as 
many widely-representative sections as it 
should determine, for the further discussion 
of the subjects thus presented, each section 
being allowed the fullest possible liberty 
in arranging its own procedure, appointing, 
if it desires, a small committee to formulate 
its conclusions, and reporting on the fourth 
and third day respectively to the whole 
Conference. 


5. That the members of the present Sub- 
jects Committee (with additions to their 
number) should not be assigned to any 
special section, but should be free to attend 


wherever their presence might be thought 
desirable. 


6. That Subject VIII (Arrangements for 
Continuing the Work of the Conference) 
should be taken by the Conference on one 
or other of the last two days. 


7. That the morning sessions of the Con- 
ference and of the sections should be from ~ 
10 to 1; and that in order to allow time for 
due consideration of the morning’s pro- 
ceedings, the afternoon sessions should be 
held not earlier than 4, and be as far as 
possible limited to two and one-half hours. 


It was agreed that proofs of the speeches 
of the two principal speakers of the day 
should be sent to the four speakers invited 
to follow, in sufficient time to allow them 
to prepare their material. It was agreed 
also that half an hour should be given to 
devotions at the opening of the morning 
sessions, that the principal speakers should 
be allowed a maximum of half an hour, and 
the subsequent speakers a maximum. of 
fifteen minutes, and that in the afternoon 
the speakers should be limited to five or 
seven minutes. 


Preamble for the Lausanne Programme. It 
was agreed at Berne that the following pre- 
amble be inserted: 


We, the members of the World Conference 
on Faith and Order, whose names are here- 
inafter written, together with those of the 
Churches which have sent us here or to 
which we belong, are met in the name of 
God. We believe that the Holy Spirit is 
moving the hearts of Christian people far 
and wide to deplore our divisions and to 
desire the oneness of Christ’s people. We 
accept with gratitude the call which has 
brought us together; we commend our work 
most humbly to the guidance of the Holy 
Spirit; and in reliance upon His leading we 
pass to the consideration of the subjects 
prepared for our Conference. 


Status of the Propositions of the earlier Draft 
Agenda. The following is an extract from 
the Minutes of the Continuation Committee, 
August 25, 1926: 


Voted: that in view of the serious misunderstandings 
which have arisen and which are likely to arise in the 
future, should the propositions brought out by the 
Subjects Committee be published as part of the official 
programme by the Continuation Committee, and in 
view of the vital importance of excluding even the 
implication that any effort was being made to determine 
in advance the conclusions to be reached by the World 
Conference on Faith and Order, it is the judgment of the 
Continuation Committee that the official programme 
of the Conference should contain only the statement 
of times and places of meeting, names of officers of the 
Conference, including Presiding Officers at separate 
sessions, the subjects to be discussed, and the names of 
the speakers, all other matters pertaining to the sub- 
jects under discussion to be printed at the end of the 
programme accompanied by such statements as will 
clearly indicate that the propositions presented are not 
to be considered as in any sense expressions of official 
judgments or final conclusions, but simply as suggestive 
of questions which must naturally arise in any thorough 
consideration of the general subject. And that all 
resolutions to the contrary should be rescinded. 


It was agreed also that such of the old “Draft 
Agenda”’ as would appear at the end of the programme, 
together with any further material, should be termed 
“Draft of Propositions suggested for Discussion, pre- 
pared by the Subjects Committee and approved by the 
Continuation Committee.” 


It was agreed that the document be remitted to 
Canon Bate, Hon. Secretary of the Subjects Committee, 
with the criticisms sent in, to give it the form that 
seemed most effective. 


Draft of propositions 
suggested for discussion, prepared by 
the Subjects Committee and approved 


by the Continuation Committee. 





Subject I. The Call to Unity. 
(Suggested form of Resolution.) 


That this Conference desires to call all Chris- 
tian people to deeper penitence with regard 
to the disunion of the Churches, and to greater 
and more definite efforts towards the unity of 
Christendom. 


Conscious that only the deepest motives are 
adequate to inspire such efforts and to make 
them effective, it urges all Christian people to 
remember 


(a) the teaching of the New Testament, that 
the Church should reflect the unity of God; 


(b) the impulse of the Holy Spirit within the 
Church and in their own hearts which is now 
moving them towards unity; 


(c) the purpose of the Lord, that through His 
Church the non-Christian world should be 
converted, and all human society purified and 
inspired, a purpose which, especially in view 
of the strength and violence of the antago- 
nistic forces of our day, can be fulfilled only 
by a united Church. 


11 


Subject II. The Church’s Message to 
the World — the Gospel. 


1. The message of the Church to all mankind 
is the Gospel, promised, prepared for, and 
foreshadowed in the Old Testament, per- 
fected in the New through the coming of Jesus 
Christ, and proclaimed to the world through 
the preaching of His Apostles. 


2. In the centre of the Gospel stands Jesus 
Christ Himself, Son of God and Son of man, 
who through His life, His death and His 
resurrection, has redeemed mankind and 
brought eternal life to light. 


3. The Gospel conveys to men, through Jesus — 
Christ and through His teaching, a revelation — 
of God Himself as our Father, and of our 
duties and hopes as children of God and 
brothers in His family. 


4. The Gospel offers to all mankind forgive- 
ness of sins and eternal life in Jesus Christ our © 
Lord; it is ‘the power of God to salvation,” 
for our deliverance from evil, and for the trans- 
formation of all human life, individual and 
social, into the fullness of the glory of God. 


12 


Subject III. The Nature of the Church. 


1. The Society of believers in Jesus Christ is 
described in the New Testament as the Church 
of the living God, the Body of Christ, the 
Temple of God. 


2. That God is its builder, Jesus Christ its 
Head, the Holy Spirit its Life-giver, is the 
common belief of all Christians. 


3. General assent would also be given to the 
following statement of the Church’s purpose: 
the divine purpose of the Church is to be the 
agency by which Christ, through the Holy 
Spirit, reconciles men to God through faith, 
extends God’s sovereignty over their wills, 
imparts to them His holiness and unites them 
in love and service. 


4. Marked divergences emerge, however, as to 
the nature of the Church, according as the 
attention of Christians is focussed upon the 
visible Church or upon the idea of the Church 
invisible, and upon the-Church of actual 
experience or upon the ideal community. 


5. These divergences affect alike the theory 
of the Church and the practice of Christian 
societies. If the question is asked, who are 
the members of the Church, different answers 
will be given according as one or other of these 
conceptions predominates. 


13 


6. Can these differences be reconciled? Or, 
if not, is it possible to find a working basis of 
agreement which would enable those whom 
they now divide to share a common life in a 
reunited Church? 


7. The common life of the visible Church’ 
must necessarily express itself in outward 
form. Would it be agreed that, however vari- 
ous in other respects the modes of that ex- 
pression may be, the following are fundamental 
and constant elements of the Church’s order? 


(a) Admission to this visible fellowship is 
granted through the Sacrament of Baptism. 


(b) The life of its members is sustained 
through the Sacrament of Christ’s Body and 
Blood, in which they are continually filled 
anew with the Life of their Lord, and offer 
to Him their common devotion; 


(c) Its members are enlightened by the 
Spirit, instructing the heart of each, edifying 
the whole body through the Word of Scrip- 
ture and the Word preached, and binding it — 
together by the inheritance of known truth; 


(d) While each member possesses gifts of 
the Spirit appropriate to his vocation, the 
public Ministry of Word and Sacraments - 
is entrusted to those who are dene 
designated for this function. 


14 


Subject IV. The Church’s Common 
Confession of Faith. 


1. Is it requisite to Christian Unity that there 
should be general agreement in an explicit 
declaration of the Christian Faith? 


2. Is it admitted that among the historic 
statements of that Faith the creeds commonly 
called the Apostles’ and the Nicene Creed 
have such weight that with regard to these 
forms, at least, it is desirable that the Churches 
should attempt to reach an agreement? 


3. Could a united Church agree 
(a) To accept the Faith of Christ as taught 
in Holy Scripture, and handed down in the 
Apostles’ and the Nicene Creeds? 


(b) To leave the occasions for the use of 
these creeds to the decisions of local 
Churches? 


(c) To recognise, while firmly adhering to 
the substance of these Creeds, that the 
Holy Spirit, leading the Church into all 
truth, may enable the Church to express the 
truths of revelation in other forms according 
to the needs of future times? 


15 


Subject V. The Church’s Ministry. 


1. One main element in existing divisions 
arises from the fact that many of the separated 
Churches find it impossible to recognise the 
Ministry of other Churches. ; 


2. Existing forms of Christian Ministry dif- 
fer both (a) in respect of the functions assigned 
to the holders of ministerial office in its various 
grades, and (b) in respect of the mode in which 
the ministerial commission is conferred. In 
view of these differences, is it possible to find 
a way towards a universally recognised 
Ministry? 


3. The most definite cleavage is between those 
Churches which retain and those which have 
dispensed with the Episcopate, i. e., with the 
principle that the Bishop is the normal head 
of the local community or group of Churches 
and the normal minister of ordination. Does 
the Conference agree that the healing of this 
cleavage is an urgent necessity? 


4. It has been suggested, as a result of one 
series of movements towards Reunion, that 
owing to its historic position in the Churches 
of Christendom, the Episcopate in its con- 
stitutional form should have a place in the 
reunited Church, side by side with which the 
Councils of the Presbyters and the Congre- 
gations of the Faithful should have their 


16 


constitutional places. Does the Conference 
regard this proposition as a hopeful solution 
of the problem with which it deals? 


5. If the necessity for a universally recognised 
Ministry is admitted, are there any other pro- 
posals in this direction which ought now to be 
considered? 


17 


Subject VI. The Sacraments. 


Would the following propositions be so 
generally accepted as to form a basis for 
further discussions? 


1. The part of God and man in the Sacra- 
ments. In each sacrament there is an act 
of God ministered by His Church, and there 
should also be a response of man. The grace 
of God is offered to the man through the 
Sacrament, even if he makes no response, but 
the benefit of that grace depends on his will 
and power to use it and on his faith in doing so. 


2. The intentions requisite for the due 
ministration of the Sacraments. The only 
necessary intentions in the Church, the 
minister or the recipients, are to do what 
Christ commanded to be done and to receive 
what God wills to give through each Sacra- 
ment. 


3. The Sacraments of Baptism and the Lord’s 
Supper. The administration of the Sacra- 
ments of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper as 
instituted by our Lord is of perpetual obliga- 
tion on the Church. 

Note. Although important problems arise — 
in connection with other rites to which the 
name of Sacrament is widely (but not uni- 
versally) applied, it is not proposed that the © 
attention of the Conference of 1927 shall be 
invited to discuss those problems. 


18 


Subject VII. The Unity of Christendom 
and the Relation thereto of Existing 
Churches. 


1. The unity of a body, as St. Paul teaches, 
implies not uniformity but diversity; and 
therefore the Church, which is Christ’s Body, 
should safeguard diversity within its unity. 


2. As the Church carries the Gospel to all 
lands in all times, and thus deserves more and 
more its ancient appellation, Catholic, it has 
the more need to provide for diversity, while 

remaining true to that Gospel which it has 
received from Jesus Christ through His 
Apostles. 


3. The unity of the Church finds a natural 
expression in local unity of administration and 
organisation; should the endeavour be made to 
restore in our days the conditions of the days 
of the Apostles when each local Church formed 
a part of the one Church, and it was manifest 
to all men that in one place there was only one 


Church? 


4. Although certain groups of Christians, 
feeling a strong concern for special aspects 
of Christian truth or practice, have under the 
stress of historical circumstances deemed it 
necessary to organise themselves as Churches, 
and have rendered great service to the Uni- 
versal Church, will it in the future be possible 


19 


for such groups to remain within the unity of 
the one Church, making their special gifts 
available to the profit of the whole body? 


5. The questions which concern the necessity 
of a central authority for the whole of Chris- 
tendom, are of the utmost importance; but 
the Conference, while recognising their im- 
portance, thinks it inadvisable to include the 
consideration of them in its programme for 
these sessions. 


20 


Special Standing Orders. The Continuation 
Committee at Stockholm, August 18, 1925, 
adopted the following Special Standing Orders 
as to procedure in the Conference of 1927. 
Certain of these provisions are now set in 
brackets, in consequence of action taken at 
Berne, as related on p. 8. 


1. Method of Discussion. 


(a) The discussion of each subject shall 
at the first stage relate immediately to 
the proposition which is printed in the 
Agenda. 


(b) When in the opinion of the Chairman 
the proposition has been sufficiently dis- 
cussed, it shall be open to the Conference 
to discuss the subject more generally and 
without strict reference to the proposition. 


(c) When the discussion of a subject is closed, 
the subject may be referred by the Conference 
to a drafting committee with instructions to 
draw up a statement to represent the mind 
of the Conference. 


(d) When such a statement has been prepared, 
it shall be brought before the Conference. If 
alterations in the statement are proposed, the 
Conference may refer them to the drafting 
committee for consideration and report. 


21 


(e) No statement shall be declared to be 
adopted unless it be accepted either unani- 
mously or nemine contradicenie. In case a 
statement does not gain this measure of ac- 
ceptance, the Conference shall determine 
what further steps if any shall be taken on 
that subject. 


2. Subjects not on the Agenda. 


Subjects not on the Agenda may be placed 
there at any stage at the written request of 
not fewer than three members with the consent 
of the Arrangements Committee and with the 
consent of a two-thirds majority of the 
Conference. 


General Standing Orders. It remains to 
draft these. 


22 





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BX 6 .W7 A42 no.47 
World Conference on Faith 


and Order. 1927 | 
Specifications and materia] 
for the Lausanne programme 





